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Mrs* Kerenhappuch Turner 

A Heroine of J 776 



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An Address 
G* S* Bradshaw^ Esq/ 

On Occasion of the Unveiling of a Monument to 
Her Memory, at the Gtiilford Battle Ground 

July 4, J 902 



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This Edition Published for The Guilford Battle Ground Company 

Through the Patriotic Gallantry of Col. W. H, Osborn 

Greensboro, N. C. 



Mrs* Kerenhappuch Turner 

Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen: 

It has been truly said that a people is poor who has no days 
to celebrate and a people is rich whose history is full of heroic 
days. The history of North Carolina, glorious as it is, in its 
recital of heroic virtue and brave deeds, tells us of no day more 
lustrous than that we celebrate today — "the supreme moment 
in the life of Cornwallis, and the crisis in the Revolution", 
when the fatal wound was given to royal authority, from 
which it lingered and lingering died seven months thereafter 
at Yorktown. I rejoice and exult with you over the fact that 
today our annual pilgrimage to this historic spot, hallowed 
scarcely more by the memories of the brave deeds of the dead 
heroes who made it famous than by the patriotic and unselfish 
efforts of the few who have been dutifully engaged in the pious 
work of preserving and perpetuating its name and fame, is 
under auspices most delightful and inspiring. 

Who, on this bright, cloudless day, filled with God's own 
sunshine, can look without a sense of delight upon this mag- 
nificent park, with its charming groves of stately oaks, its wav- 
ing grain, its beautiful flowers, its lovely lake, its cool springs, 
its green meadows, and its sacred acres of hill and vale 1 Who, 
on this anniversary of the birthday of our Republic, in the 
presence of this multitude of God's own people, moved by 
patriotic impulse to keep it holy, can behold without a thrill of 
inspiration these splendid monuments and these beautiful 
memorial stones erected to tell us and those after us of self- 
sacrifice, noble deeds, and heroic virtues'? Who that looks 
upon this sacred spot, and recalls its deathless record, reclaimed 

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as it is, beautified and decorated with these imposing mem- 
orials, is not moved to uncover in presence of Judge Schenck 
and Major Morehead, who have led at untold sacrifice in the 
great work here accomplished? This audience needs not to 
be told of the great work of Judge Schenck, who first secured 
for the Battle Ground Association lodgment in the public 
attention of this State, and successfully invoked the aid of our 
State Legislature. Nor does it need to be reminded of the 
strenuous efforts of Major Morehead throughout these years, 
and that as the acting President of this Association for some 
years past he has succeeded in securing for it a surer and more 
exalted place in the patriotic love of the people of this State. 
We may rejoice today over another fact, and for another 
reason. Not only does this Company or Association occupy a 
higher and safer place in the affections of our own people and 
under the fostering and continuing care of State legislation 
than ever before, but through the vigilance and diligence of 
President Morehead, and our representatives of all parties in 
Congress, the favoring eye and the fostering hand of the 
National Government have been attracted as never before. 
More prominently and favorably than ever before does our 
Company stand in the esteem of Congress and the people of 
all sections of this great country, as is illustrated by the action 
of the present House of Representatives in voting two monu- 
ments to Generals Nash and Davidson because of what has 
been done here, and because of the avowed declaration that 
they should be located here. This is as it should be, for does 
not its history and every memory attached to it belong to our 
whole country? I am persuaded that if Congress and the 
whole country could see with their own eyes what we behold 
today with ours, these nineteen monuments and the great work 
here accomplished by individual effort in preserving and 
caring for this great battlefield, on which was fought the 
critical, the turning, and the greatest battle of the Revolution 
— that battle which meant so much, and was the means of 
securing so much not only for our forefathers but for all suc- 
ceeding generations, no Congress would refuse or hesitate in 
extending the fostering hand of the national Government in 
aid of its permanent preservation. 

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But this patriotic Company is not waiting for outside help, 
badly as it needs it. We are here today to witness again 
further evidence of its self-sacrifice and labor of love. Yonder 
stand — hidden as yet from your view — two more monuments 
which we are met to dedicate and unveil today, and which 
shall stand through coming time to tell you and yours and 
those who shall come after you of the virtues of a brave, good 
woman, and the story of a great man. The story of this great 
man, Nathaniel Macon, you have just heard from the eloquent 
gentleman (Mr. Pittman) who preceded me. It is for me to 
tell you something of the brave woman in honor of whose 
memory we today unveil on this sacred spot the first monument 
ever erected on American soil to a Revolutionary heroine — its 
granite crowned with a handsome statue, and emblazoned with 
words of everlasting bronze. In song and in story— "in 
thoughts that breathe and in words that burn"— have been 
told again and again the story of the virtues, the brave deeds, 
the sacrifice, the suffering, and the heroism of the men who 
fought, bled, and died in that terrible war for Independence ; 
but the story of the privation, the suffering, the daring, and 
the dying of the grand reserve army of that vfar is yet untold 
and unsung. The women, by their lonely hearthstones, sur- 
rounded by helpless children, in the primeval forests, without 
mail or telegraph or railroad to bring them tidings of the 
absent loved ones — their griefs, their sorrow, their suspense, 
their anxiety, their agony— their death borne without a mur- 
mur. They died not in the exciting and. exulting rush of bat- 
tle. Theirs was the long, slow, wasting, lingering death — a 
thousand deaths. Sometimes it was coldblooded murder ; some- 
times it was the cold, piercing, cutting dagger of helpless 
grief; and sometimes they fell under the crushing burden of 
domestic care and trouble. Their battles were fought in the 
darkness and loneliness and silence of their homes. They 
heard not the martial music which thrilled heroes; they felt 
not the elbow touch which heroes feel in the mad rush of bat- 
tle. There was never a shout or cheer to give them courage 
and strength. There were no medals awarded to them; no 
promotions were bestowed to stimulate them. Theirs was a 
lonely march to death — and yet how bravely and how patiently 

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they fought to the end no tongue or pen can ever tell. These 
were heroines — and whilst in village, hamlet, town, and city, 
from ocean to ocean, we have with stone and brass built mem- 
orials of every name, size, and kind in honor of our heroes — 
the mothers, the wives, and the daughters of that awful time, 
who toiled and suffered and died for their country, are 
"unwept, unhonored, and unsung". Not only did they suffer 
and fight and toil thus in their lonely and desolate homes, but 
these ministers of compassion, these angels of pity, whenever 
possible, went to the battlefields to moisten the parched tongues, 
to bind the ghastly wounds, and to soothe the parting agonies 
alike of friend and foe, and to catch the last whispered mes- 
sages of love from dying lips. Not since Aaron stood between 
the living and the dead has there ever been a ministry so graci- 
ous, so patient, so self-sacrificing, so tender, so gentle, and so 
faithful as was that of the heroines of the Revolution. 

Among the brave women who hastened to the field of the 
battle of Guilford Courthouse to minister to the wounded and 
the dying was Mrs. Kerenhappuch Turner, whose sons and 
grandsons were with General Greene in this battle. Mrs. 
Kerenhappuch Turner was the wife of James Turner, one of 
the early settlers of Maryland, possessed of his courageous 
spirit, as well as noted for her skill in nursing the sick, and 
her wisdom, tact, and energy. She loved her children with 
the devotion of a true mother, but she loved her country also. 
Sending forth her sons to the defense of their country, she 
exacted from them the promise that she should be kept informed 
of their whereabouts and their needs, that she might continue 
to minister to them. One of these sons received a fearful 
wound in the battle of Guilford Courthouse, but the brave 
mother came to him, riding on horseback all the way from her 
home in Maryland, and herself nursed him back into life and 
service. Placing him in a log cabin, near this spot whereon 
we now stand, upon the floor, beneath the bare rafters, she 
bored holes in tubs which she suspended from these rafters 
above the ghastly wounds, and keeping these tubs filled with 
cool water, from the "Bloody Run" near by, the constant 

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dripping upon the wound allayed the fever, and she thus 
improvised a treatment as efficacious as the "icepack" of 
modern science. 

One of her daughters, Elizabeth, married Joseph Morehead, 
of North Carolina, of Scotch ancestry, and her descendants 
have ever been noted for their love of country and public 
spirit. Another daughter, Mary, married Charles, the brother 
of Joseph Morehead, and left offspring in the West. Of these, 
Gov. Charles S. Morehead, of Kentucky, and his cousin, Gov. 
James Turner Morehead, of the same State, have been eminent 
statesmen, having served not only as Governor, but also in the 
Senate of the United States from that State. 

The North Carolina branch of the family has given to this 
State the late Gov. John M. Morehead, one of the greatest, if 
not the greatest Governor our State has yet produced, who 
was a great leader of the old Whig party, and the greatest 
internal improvement man the State has yet known and his 
brother, Hon. James Turner Morehead, one of the greatest and 
most distinguished lawyers of his day in this State, and who 
at one time represented this District in Congress, where he 
could have remained indefinitely but for his positive refusal 
to remain in Congress. He preferred his profession, to which 
he was devoted. 

The late Governor Morehead is survived by one son, Maj. 
J. Turner Morehead, now of New York City. The only sur- 
viving sons of the late Hon. James Turner Morehead are Col. 
James T. Morehead, one of the leading and most distinguished 
members of the Greensboro bar, who, like his father, is devoted 
to his profession, preferring it to political honors, and Maj. 
Joseph M. Morehead, who is now, and has been for some years, 
the acting President of the Guilford Battle Ground Company. 
It was the latter who conceived the idea of erecting the beauti- 
ful monument which we dedicate and unveil today in honor of 
the memory of Kerenhappuch Turner. The conception of this 
idea was submitted by him to his patriotic kinsman, Maj. J. 
Turner Morehead, of New York City, who like all members of 
this distinguished family, is noted for his public spirit, and 
who, with enthusiasm as well as with purse and brain, joined 
President Morehead in the execution of the idea under the 

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auspices of said Company. These two men are, therefore, 
entitled to the honor of erecting here the first monument ever 
built in America to a Revolutionary heroine — an honor of 
which they may well be proud, and which entitles them to the 
gratitude of every man who loves his country. They have set 
an example worthy of imitation, which it is to be hoped will 
stimulate others to like manifestation of patriotic and filial 
piety. 

We honor ourselves in honoring the brave and good woman 
of whom I speak today. Her long ride, her gentle touch, her 
tact, her skill, and her heroic service, saved the life of her son. 
It was an ancient Roman, touched perhaps by a transient 
gleam of Christian truth, who said when he turned aside from 
a career of Asiatic conquest that he would rather save a human 
life than become master of all the dominions of Mithridates. 
This is but one life of which history and tradition tell us. 
How many vv^ere saved by the tender ministry of the brave 
women of that awful time will never be known. The history 
of the part enacted by them in that great struggle has never 
been written. I salute the Daughters of the American Revolu- 
tion, who honor us today with their presence, and bid them 
godspeed in their pious and patriotic work of rescuing from 
oblivion the history of those heroic days. They can render 
their sex and their country no greater service than that of 
rescuing from oblivion those records and traditions which tell 
us of the glorious deeds and godlike sacrifices of the brave 
women of those days. It is fit, Mr. President, that the Daugh- 
ters of the Revolution should join with us in the tribute we 
pay today to one who glorified her sex in her homely toils and 
in her angelic ministry upon this battlefield, where valor wrote 
in crimson letters ' ' the purple testament of bleeding war ' '. 

It is meet, too, that on this sabbath of our government this 
uncounted multitude should come and share with us the honor 
of dedicating to a brave woman this beautiful monument, 
around which in the coming years youth and age shall gather 
and linger to read its story, and to study the annals emblaz- 
oned by the Christlike services of the heroines of the Revolu- 
tion. 

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Then, upon this holy ground, whereon fell the tears of our 
mothers and the blood of our fathers in the starless night of 
their supreme effort, let us reverently uncover in the pres- 
ence of this most fitting and beautiful memorial to the memory 
of a Revolutionary mother. 

' ' The bravest battle that was ever fought, 

Shall I tell you where or when? 
On the maps of the world you will find it not, 

'Twas fought by the mothers of men. 

Nay, not with cannon or battle shot, 

With a sword, or nobler pen; 
Nay, not with eloquent word or thought 

From mouths of wonderful men. 

But deep in a walled-up woman's heart, 

A woman that would not yield. 
But bravely, silently bore her part — 

Lo, there is that battlefield. 

No marshaling troops, no bivouac song. 

No banner to gleam and wave; 
;^ut, oh, these battles they last so long — 

From babyhood to the grave. 

Yet, faithful still as a bridge of stars, 

She fights in her walled-up town; 
Fights on and on in the endless wars. 

Then silent, unseen, goes down. 

Oh, ye, with banners and battle shot. 

And soldiers to shout and praise, 
I tell you the kingliest victories fought 

Are fought in these silent ways. 

Oh, spotless woman, in a world of shame. 

With splendid and silent scorn. 
Go back to God as white as you came — 

The kingliest warrior born." 



LIBRfiRY OF CONGRES! 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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